Hermessence Paprika Brasil

I haven't seen much discussion about this scent so thought I could start one having had the chance to sample it at the local Hermes boutique yesterday. While I found the top notes quite overpowering, I was absolutely besotted with the mid and basenotes, the iris does certainly temper things down and the woody/spicy base had me sniffing my arm constantly. For me, this is a close second to my favourite of the Hermessence bunch, Poivre Samarcande. Now if only Hermes would make the price points more accessible! Anyone else had experience with this one?

Here is what osMoz has to say about it:-

Paprika Brasil is the sixth olfactory poem in the Hermessence collection. Dreamt up by Jean Claude Ellena, in-house designer for Hermès, the fragrance is an olfactory voyage to the tune of pimento and ‘ember wood’, the ‘Brazil wood’ once commonly found in the country that gave it its name, which was ‘the spark of inspiration, the first flame in the fire of creation.’ A fragrance for men and women to share, to be found only in Hermès boutiques.

Waves of spices, cloves and pimento ‘set fire to the wood’. A powdery note of iris, mixed with ‘the raw greenness of leaves,’ comes to cool the blaze. The imposing woods are allied with ‘aqueous notes of reseda, which establish a strange, dark coolness’.

Re: Hermessence Paprika Brasil

My skin absorbs spicy notes all together, so the pepper and whatever there is of paprika disappears whithin the first few minutes. Well, the spicyness is there, but very subtly. The spicies are from the dry/cold-type, an Ellena signature (see Declaration by Cartier). What is left is a beautiful, if somewhat austere, green iris. Could be my imagination, but there is something leathery in the base. Lasting power is good for such a subtle theme. Sure it must be my skin, yet if you ask me the name Papriza Brasil is all wrong. Maybe "Iris du Monastère" would suit it better? LOL!

As lovely as PB is, why did Hermes created yet another iris-based fragrance when they already have the most perfect Hiris by Olivia Giacobeti? Both are minimal: Hiris more bucolic, thanks to the carrot extract and PB somewhat more masculine, because of the cold spice accord. Hermes seams to use iris is all of its fragrances, still both PB and Hiris are single florals based on iris. Did Hermes want their own version of Ellena's Bois d'Iris for the Different Company (IMHO the only real star in that line)? I wonder...

Anyway Paprika Brasil is my favorite, together with Vetiver Tonka, in the Hermessence line.

Re: Hermessence Paprika Brasil

It's nice to see some renewed interest in the Hermessence line but I have yet to find one that's bottleworthy. Most of them either lack decent longevity (to justify the price) or just don't agree with my skin chemistry (Vetiver Tonka sadly being one of them). It would also help greatly if they were available in 50ml.

Re: Hermessence Paprika Brasil

Yes, santemon, Paprika Brasil gets little 'love' here on Basenotes. Most of the online blogs gave it unhappy reviews when it was released. I was confused - when I rushed over to the Hermes stores when I knew it was released I LOVED IT. I knew instantly that I liked it and I wanted to own it.

I get a lot of the pimento and in combination with the wood, it conjures up the olfactory image of a plate of pimento stuffed olives (salty, perhaps in brine) - while the wood note is a driftwood or other dry brittle dead wood (cork?). Funny thing, I don't like iris or most iris based scents that Basenoters rave over. Hiris, Dior Homme...I have tried to like - but the effect these iris frags give, is a very powdery one. This I don't like. However, the iris in Paprika Brasil is uniquely different. 'Green iris' sounds like a good description.

I also found Paprika Brasil a VERY DRY scent. Perfect for me, when I want a close to the body scent that isn't going to over project and that will work for me when I'm sweating (gym, outdoors, etc.).

I own (and love) all of the Hermessences - except for Osmanthus Yunan which somehow...I can't 'get'. Please give Ambre Narguile a smell in the cooler weather. It is one my Top 5 scents, of all time. Amazing scent.

Re: Hermessence Paprika Brasil

Actually, Ambre Narguile came closest to bottleworthy, to me. However, it seemed a little too sweet for my liking.

mikeperez23, I don't mean to hijack this thread but what's your thoughts on the sweetness of this one?

Ambre Narguile is sweet, for sure. Having said that, it's sweet 'done right'. I find it doesn't work at all in the Miami hot weather, where it can become cloying. But in cool weather it's sweet/spice combo is the perfect accompaniment to the holiday season. I have a distinct memory of wearing Ambre Narguile when I hosted a 50 person Christmas party in my home. The smells of food, the Christmas tree and Ambre Narguile combined, and complimented each other perfectly. It's similar to Terre D'Hermes, in that it has 'Rolls-Royce' sillage. Elegant, refined - yet everyone knows when it enters the room.

I would give it another try on your skin, in much cooler weather.

Chandler Burr wrote a wonderful review of it that is in the end of 'Emperor of Scent' the book he wrote on Luca Turin, that I've posted a few times here on Basenotes:

Ambre Narguilé | Hermès

It is a benefit of this job that Jean-Claude Ellena mixed up a small bottle of this for me in the perfume lab he had just created near Grasse to serve as the nursery for Hermès' future elixirs. This is the second scent that Ellena, now Hermès' perfumer, created for the house— or the third, fourth, or fifth, depending on how you count; his first was the exquisite Un Jardin en Méditerranée, followed by the Hermèssences, a collection of four super-luxury (and super-expensive) scents, of which Ambre Narguilé is one. It is not merely the best; there is simply nothing like it on the market, period. And no one will ever do it as well again. Start with the technical brilliance, which is jaw-dropping—this is a costly scent that runs like an atomic clock. It has a titanium-like power, a ride as smooth as a Mercedes 500 S on brand-new Pirellis, and a sillage so performant you'd think it was built by Cal Tech engineers. Those are the specs; it is the subjective artistry of the work that is so masterful owning a bottle should be a legal, if not a religious, obligation. It is one of the two or three greatest culinary perfumes ever created. Smelling this is like experiencing not banana, nor caramel, nor whipped cream, nor the lightest and most supple tan rich leather driving glove; it is a heated wash through the bloodstream of those concepts wrapped in a very, very blond leaf of the most lightly cured tobacco. It is edible, but it is not sweet, and it is not salt; it is both. And it weaves the peculiar sorcery of rendering food deeper, richer, better than it would be removed from the presence of this golden smack. I travel with Jean-Claude's bottle in my dop kit along with some benzodiazepine for long flights, and like some strange drug, I put it on before any serious dinner. You have never truly experienced a meal until you've done so with three drops of Ambre Narguilé on each wrist. But it changes you as well. It is a scent that alters and heightens taste. It is mesmerizing culinary alchemy. It warms the air. It renders you mouthwatering.

Re: Hermessence Paprika Brasil

Originally Posted by Oslo-Fjord

Agreed! I tried this one today, and it`s another Ellena work of art. Definitively on my wish-list.

-And today I had a breakdown and bought a bottle! Great stuff. A very classy woody-spicy fragrance. The longevity on my skin seems very good. The sillage is moderate. I now own 4 of the Hermessence fragrance. Ambre Naruile, Vetiver Tonka, Paprika Brasil, and Poivre Samarcande, and I think I will rank them in that order. I`m very impressed of the fragrances from Hermès, and Ellena has done a great job with the Hermessence line. Hermès has now become my favorite fragrance house.